TGIF: Role models

This week’s Thank Goodness I’ve Friends appreciates two women who I can’t exactly call friends, but to whom I’m definitely grateful. Indeed, the first, I’ll never meet as she tragically lost a battle to cancer. I learned about Ann Richards through Holland Taylor’s masterful Ann on Broadway this week.

Taylor’s performance seems to have impeccably captured Richards’ commitment to public service, smart wit, upbeat resilience, and vibrant belief in women’s ability to do anything, just like her Daddy told her she could. Though the author and only actor in the one-woman show shared a disclaimer at the end that her play’s message was “no more political than a play about Amelia Earhart would be about aviation," Taylor as Richards offered a rousing call to the audience to get involved in government, at the very least by voting.

The Women in the World post (read it!) does a magnificent job of summarizing the inspiring contributions that Reshma’s circle of champions shared. None of which, by the way, eulogized Reshma, at the candidate’s explicit request. Instead, they talked about sisterhood: women helping women, picking each other up and walking the last hard mile together. The room was packed with accomplished and beautiful women of all ages and races, gathered by an illustrious host committee, just to mention a few: Diana Taylor of Wolfensohn & Co, Natalia Oberti Noguera of the Pipeline Fellowship, Alexandra Wilkis Wilson of Gilt Groupe, Janet Hanson of 85 Broads, Caroline Ghosn and Tiffany Dufu of the Levo League, Jill Iscol of the Hummingbird Foundation, Kelly Hoey who’s Forbes top 5 women changing VC, Cali Yost of Work/Life Fit… and the list goes on.

I was obediently tweeting the #sisterhood hashtag within 10 minutes of these women spreading this good vibe, easily leading one to imagine what a Reshma administration would look and feel like. And I’m having a call with the campaign’s finance chair Monday to see how I can help it happen. Check her out: http://www.reshmafornewyork.com/ and get on board. (Men, you’re invited to support the #sisterhood too!)

So thank you, Ann and Reshma, for offering me and other women and citizens around New York, Texas, and beyond an inspiring example of how and why we should be leading our communities. It’s no one else’s future more than yours.